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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26830447">A Door That Shuts You In</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphireswimming/pseuds/sapphireswimming'>sapphireswimming</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Aces [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gundam 00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Episode: s01e01 Celestial Being, Gen, Gen Work, Gundam 00 Week 2018, One Shot, Political Posturing, The AEU (Gundam 00), slight AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2018-07-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2018-07-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:28:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,030</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26830447</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphireswimming/pseuds/sapphireswimming</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The launch of the Enact was supposed to be a celebration of the AEU's accomplishments - they hadn't counted on the Gundams taking down their new model in a matter of minutes, or revealing their treaty violations in front of the entire world. The Council doesn't know if there's a way to save face after such a debacle, but at this point, they're willing to try just about anything</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Aces [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1957048</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Door That Shuts You In</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Also posted here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13733988/1/</p><p>Written for Gundam 00 Week 2018 Day 1: Trap</p><p>Title from the Gundam 00 ending credit song <i>Trap</i> by Wana</p><p>Set during Episode: s01e01 <i>Celestial Being</i>. No warnings, no spoilers</p><p>This can be read as a standalone fic, and is also the first part of Aces, a slight AU series in which the Blocs make a more coordinated effort to promote their anti-Gundam fighting capabilities and the world then has to deal with Patrick Colasaur, Graham Aker, and Soma Pieres becoming celebrities</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The meeting room's harsh artificial lighting bloomed against the marble walls, added to as the looping footage of the white Gundam flickered brightly across the faces of the board members who couldn't seem to look away from the central screen.</p><p>"It was our latest model," the man in the subdued green suit said again, still hardly able to believe over it seven hours later, "and it was defeated so easily."</p><p>The mustached man beside him crossed his arms. "We'll just have to halt developments of the Enact…" he offered defeatedly. "Go back to the drawing board and see if we can come up with something better. The technology obviously exists," he said, tilting his head toward the screen as the recording showed the Gundam hacking apart the suit they had been so proud of that morning before taking off of the ground and <em>flying away</em>, backed by a science that had only been theorized about in their developer's wildest dreams.</p><p>"It's not going to be as simple as that," the woman with harshly cropped blonde hair sighed. "This has gone public. It was broadcast live across the world," she said, gesturing to the screen. "Now, everyone knows that we had more military forces stationed in the elevator than the treaty allows. They all want to know why and to what extent. They're asking us to disclose <em>everything</em>," she stressed and the other board members fell silent.</p><p>"If we do, they'll demand that we cease and desist, and put constraints on us to ensure that we do. If we don't… well… there's a chance they'll put a stop to everything pending a full scale inquiry."</p><p>"They wouldn't be able to halt everything, though, surely?" the green suited man said. "I mean, not at a Bloc-wide level…" he said, looking around the room for reassurance and finding none on the hard faces surrounding him.</p><p>"Don't be so sure," the mustached man said. "The elevators are barely ten years old. The Solar Energy Wars haven't faded out of the public consciousness yet. This is the first treaty made under the reorganization and I can guarantee you that the other Blocs won't take this sitting down. And with our own people against us?" he shook his head. "Don't underestimate the power of a world united against us. Not with so much on the line."</p><p>The tanned man with normally perfectly manicured hair put a hand to his temples as he studied the fine wood grain of the table. "We have reports that this may have been a plot by the HRL or the Union to intentionally reveal that we were breaking the treaty. I mean, to have developed such an advanced mobile suit in secret would require the scientific knowledge of a highly developed nation, not to mention the funds of someone like…"</p><p>"…the Union?" the mustached man ventured. "Their Ace did barge into the unveiling ceremony without a ticket."</p><p>"Yes, but the Flag is still a new model itself," the woman replied, shaking her head. "And can you imagine the Union developing something like this and not showing it off right away?"</p><p>"The HRL, then? The Tierens are ten years overdue for an upgrade. Maybe this was it."</p><p>"Yes, but still. You'd think if they had the technology to <em>take off again from the ground</em>, they'd have stopped using their mobile suits like paratrooper units," the tanned man said, expressively gesturing across the table with both hands so that the buttons on the sleeves of his white suit clinked against the surface.</p><p>The hawk-nosed British Prime Minister interrupted their postulating. "The only thing we know for sure is that this… Celestial Being, whoever they may be, has a very capable mobile suit that is more powerful than the Enact."</p><p>"And if that's the case," the green-suited man followed, "we can't afford to halt developments. In fact, we should be doubling our efforts at making new suits."</p><p>"New or better?" the woman muttered out of the side of her mouth.</p><p>"Both," he said, glancing to her for a moment. "Did you see how easily that thing took out our forces?"</p><p>The tanned man ran a hand through his now disheveled hair and pointed it toward the screen between them without a word. Their Ace pilot was unearthing himself from a smoldering pile of warped, twisted metal, a fortune nearly half a decade in the making.</p><p>"And that was only with two of them," he continued as if he hadn't seen the obvious but silent gesture. "But there are four, at least, that we know of already."</p><p>"We have no idea how many there are. There could be dozens. Hundreds, even," the green suited man despaired.</p><p>"I doubt it's that many," the woman said, turning toward him coldly. "Or they would have come out with a larger show of force."</p><p>"They wouldn't need to, with such advanced weaponry as that. They had two suits and it was already a show of force," he said, pointing up toward the screen. None of them needed to look up to see the now well-familiar scene of destruction playing out above their heads. "But that's what I'm saying. If just two of these new suits can take out all of ours, then we need more to try to counter them. More suits… and better suits."</p><p>"Public opinion is already against us, though," the mustached man shook his head, finally uncrossing his arms. "The other Blocs might even have been lenient now that they've seen the Gundams as well, but with public opinion against us like this…" he waved his upturned hands in an arc in front of him.</p><p>"If any of the member nations start withdrawing support," the tanned man warned, sitting up and staring pointedly at each of the board members seated around the glorified conference table, "Or worse, passing legislation to prevent our military from developing further weaponry…"</p><p>"Then we'll fall behind," the woman said bluntly. "We'll be overrun. By the Gundams. And the Union and the HRL."</p><p>"I can guarantee you that they aren't sitting back on this," he said, reaching up a hand to loosen the red tie cinched tight around his neck. "By now, they've already ramped up their production teams. If this suit doesn't belong to them, they want to get their hands on that technology just as much as we do," he said, tapping on the table. "And they don't have their hands tied behind their backs by this thing with the treaty."</p><p>"So we can't afford to stop. And we also can't afford to be stopped. So," the green suited man asked, steepling his hands in front of his face, "What do we do?"</p><p>"If we could drum up enough morale… enough public support, then it wouldn't matter if we keep going ahead anyway. By the time anyone found out about it, they would also see how necessary they were," the tanned man pointed out, unbuttoning the top button of his maroon shirt and opening it wide enough that he didn't feel suffocated by his own clothing.</p><p>"So… we only have to find a way to keep them from shutting down production," the green suited man said, voice lilting at the prospect of an abbreviated task.</p><p>From beside him, the mustached man sighed heavily, his voice laden with doubt. "And just how do you propose to singlehandedly turn around the public's opinion quickly enough to salvage this?"</p><p>The green suited man did not have an answer for him.</p><p>Neither did anyone else. The board members of the AEU sat in silence as they pondered the fate of their Bloc's military might and the footage on the screen in front of them rolled from the top once again, trailing the far-off figure of the Gundam during its initial light-filled descent until it touched down into the training ground arena.</p><p>"The Gundams," the Prime Minister said.</p><p>"What?" the green suited man turned toward him with drawn brows.</p><p>"Capitalize on the Gundams," he said again.</p><p>"The Gundams are new," the woman said, slowly realizing what he was driving at. "They're unknowns. Everyone around the world is clamoring to know more. Where did they come from, who is Celestial Being, and what are they planning to do next?"</p><p>"And?" the tanned man asked, propping one arm on the table and resting his head in his hand.</p><p>"And… we saw them first. They touched down at the <em>AEU</em> unveiling ceremony. We had a pilot fight one of those things. We had multiple pilots fight those things."</p><p>"And lose. Terribly," the mustached man pointed out.</p><p>The tanned man had sat up again and waved his comment away as he stared at the woman. "We are the only Bloc that has fought them," he said, looking to her for confirmation that they understood the issue in the same way.</p><p>She nodded. We have footage. We have data. We don't know what it means yet, of course, but still. We have it." She stared around the table. "We have something that no one else does. That's something we can make use of."</p><p>"Sure, but make use of how? What do you propose to do?"</p><p>"Broadcast it. Televise it."</p><p>At their unconvinced stares, the tanned man continued, picking up her thread. "If we were to have a television spot, for example," he said, "interviewing our brave pilots, shot down on a day of celebration, when they were trying to defend the orbital elevator from an unknown mobile suit that commenced hostilities and engaged us unprovoked during an official, peaceful unveiling ceremony…" he drifted off, letting them picture all of the possibilities.</p><p>"We can frame the narrative however we want," the woman said, corner of her mouth twitching up.</p><p>He nodded. "Sure," he agreed easily. "Play up the human interest angle, show how brave our pilots are. How they'll protect the member nations from this new unknown threat. Get footage from the ceremony – something that never aired on the regular news stations. Its first descent and a close up from when it touched down…"</p><p>"People will eat it up," the mustached man breathed. "Even if they don't consider it a threat, the fact that we can offer them new glimpses into the Gundams before either of the other Blocs will count for something."</p><p>"The public are fickle," the tanned man nodded, "But if you know how to cater to them…" he said, spreading out his arms before folding them neatly in front of him.</p><p>"I had forgotten you used to be on the other side of the microphone."</p><p>He tilted his head, modestly.</p><p>"That might work," the mustached man said.</p><p>"It's worth a shot, isn't it?"</p><p>"Who was the pilot at the ceremony?"</p><p>"Colasaur, wasn't it?" the green suited man asked, turning to the woman for confirmation.</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"I'm sure he'd love to supply footage for a television special."</p><p>The mustached man blinked. "Wasn't he hospitalized?"</p><p>"Even better," the tanned man said. "Get footage of him immediately, before he's released. Really hit up that angle. The brave young man attacked out of the blue and unawares by these Gundams. I'm sure our people will be able to do something with it."</p><p>"So that's what we're doing, then?" the green suited man asked. "Salvaging our reputation with a little television special?"</p><p>The woman shrugged. "If you know of a faster way to turn around public opinion in time, I'd be glad to consider it. But I had been under the impression that we were in a hurry to make the tide turn in our favor." She said, pointedly.</p><p>"For now, I believe it may be the best thing we can do," the Prime Minister said, effectively ending the debate. "We'll have a better grasp of the situation soon enough."</p><p>The green suited man threw out his hands as he ceded his reservations and bobbed his head in acceptance of their marching orders. "Alright, can we contact the same crew we used for the AEU special—"</p><p>"Already on it," the tanned man said, digging into the pocket of his blazer for his terminal and hot pressing a number from memory before switching it to voice only mode and pushing out of his seat.</p>
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